Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The other day, I was going through old cookbooks (pretending to clean) and found the 1979 Arlington Elementary School PTA cookbook. You know, those spiral bound, type-written fundraising cookbooks. In other words, the mother lode of nostalgia. (BTW, this wasn't even my elementary school, but somehow I have it...)

On page 221, under Soups & Salad, it's 7 Layer Finger Jello. Oh yes, I remember you and Pop Rocks candy well. (And I love that it is under "Soups & Salads" category.)

I know Utah and many LDS members have a close relationship with Jell-O...highest per capita consumption in SLC and official snack food of Utah! However, I haven't picked up a box of the sugar/gelatin mixture in years. I think Jello was the first thing I remember "baking"! (Whew, I have an answer for the TWD Q&A when my turns comes round).

I made a 5-Layer Valentine's Jello using the three "red" jellos I could find: Strawberry, Cherry and Raspberry. Except I couldn't find my heart shaped cookie cutter! Oh well, you get the idea! :)

This recipe is for a 7-Layer Finger Jello and you can adjust accordingly.

I've never seen anything like that before - but now that you mention LDS and Jello, at the kids school here in Vegas, there is a large percentage of LDS students (but we're not) and now I know why they always bring in the Jello desserts for parties!

I know Utah has the largest consumption of jello, but trust me, it doesn't usually look that good. I am LDS and I know that there are lots of jokes about jello all the time.These look like a really fun v-day treat!

This may be just the thing for my son's preschool class that I signed up for bringing a "red treat". I've made a 12 layer jello before using as many colors as I could find and layering it with a sour cream mixture. I love the sound of this condensed milk one!

This brings back such memories! I used to make this as a teen. It's been ages since I've carefully poured the layers in a pan like that, making sure each was set just enough but not too much before adding the next one. You inspire me to make this long-lost treat once again.

Pop Rocks! I'm just laughing, in between gasps of astonished amazement at how you made jello look elegant! (My mom makes a layered jello mold every Thanksgiving, and even though they can be just plain weird, we love hers.)

Made the jell-o for 5 year old's class party. So good. I loved the flavor with the condensed milk layers. So fun, too. I ended with a white layer on top, which worked fine, but I love your three red, two white layers. I'm posting this on my blog tonight. Thanks for reminding me about layered Jell-o. Try it with six colors sometime with white in between! (You use a little less white in between each.)

just a word of caution if you're making jello in a coldish room- you might want to make the milk mixture in 2 separate batches. while i waited for the other layers to set, my milk mix started to set and get clumpy just sitting on the table.

I hate green jello but our family is celebrating St Patties day tomorrow (late) so I am making it all green and white. AND Boy does a level frig make a difference. I have pot holders in there now to level it out. hehe. I love the red colors.

Dear Anonymous (December 20, 2009): "One package" is one ENVELOPE of unflavored gelatin (brand name is Knox). The envelope is 1/4 ounce of gelatin. Usually, the Knox box has 4 envelopes in a small box. Sorry for any confusion. - mary

If anyone makes this you may want to consider using a smaller Pyrex dish (not too much smaller) and letting it sit a little longer to get thicker layers :) Comes out beautiful, can't wait to deliver to my friends!!

Thank you for your ideas and inspiration. I tried it this afternoon with great success. I'm not even a fan of JellO but this is so striking, I had to make it :-)http://www.flickr.com/photos/mavinkurve/4382783325/

Lovely! I just tried it for the first time, and it turned out beautifully. However, none of my cookie cutters are tall enough for it, so I'll have to satisfy myself with squares.

I came across your recipe in a search for something that could be described as "raspberry ice" for a Mary Poppins birthday party. We're doing it at the local Children's Museum, so raspberry sorbet is out, since we won't have a freezer. I made a practice batch of the five-layer jello (raspberry and milk only). My twin daughters, who had never had jello before, refused to try it. :( I was surprised at how tasty it was.

I remember these jello layers as a kid and have been searching for the recipe as my aunt could not find hers. Thank you! I've just introduced this to my kids and they LOVE it, of course. I'm sending in a batch for my son's birthday celebration at school in lieu of cupcakes and my daughter wants to have a Jello theme party for her fifth birthday :) Can you tell me how you made that pretty flower cut out one?

Ok, I'm like you, I haven't made (or eaten) jell-o in years, but seriously, this post has me convinced I need to do both immediately. Too bad jell-o takes more than "immediately" to set up. My kids will love this! Thanks for getting me back into jell-o.

I make 8 layer jello all the time for my family!!!! It is a pain in the butt but everyone loves it!!!! We make it for our church bazaar luncheon also. Love it with four different flavors and mine is made with skim milk and sugar!!

It's so beautiful that I decided to make it right now! I tried your broken glass jello a month ago and loved it. It's not Valentine's but I have a cute heart shaped cookie cutter I want to try out^^Thank you so much for the gorgeous recipes and photos!

so cute! I just made this using your recipe. I made it or my daughter's church class for Valentines Day. She is going to bring these tomorrow for Sunday School along with her homemade cards... she is so excited! It was very time consuming, but tuned out really well. She was even able to cut out the heart shapes herself. After the final jello layer, I let it set up for one hour before attempting to cut it with heart cookie cutters.

Thank you sooooo much for showing me this recipe! I was looking for a product to make for my Food technology class, our theme is 'Edible Gifts'. This is perfect!. Quick and Easy! I can even change the colours to suit the season!

I just finished a lovely dinner with friends and served this for dessert while at our summer cottage in Canada. We are all adults; however, this dessert brought out the kid in us and we started playing with the layers as we ate. Thank you for this fun recipe. If possible check that your fridge is level "before" starting the recipe, mine was a bit off.

My aunt always makes this at Christmas time or other family gatherings. She has been making them for years. She makes several different colors so it always comes out like a rainbow! The kids love them.

@mjcundiff Hi mjcundiff, Yes, I made a 5 layer jello in the photo, but the recipe is for a 7 layer Jello. You can adjust the recipe to how many layers you want. To see the 7 layer, please visit this post: http://www.foodlibrarian.com/2011/08/7-layer-finger-jello.html Sorry for any confusion. - mary

Hi I love how this jello looks but I have a question so i choose any flavor I like and then change the color with waterbased food color or it doesn't work like that I would like to make it blue instead of red